HBOT AND LYME DISEASE
Dr. Fife (past UHMS President) and others have shown that when Lyme becomes chronic and the spirochete is sequestered in cells, the cells may protect the spirochete against the antibiotic, making it less effective. However, Hyperbaric oxygen therapy combined with an antibiotic regime has shown significant improvement of the quality of life, long after all other treatments have failed. Research has shown that the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is a facultative anaerobic organism, which can survive in an oxygen partial pressure of 35 mg Hg, but not in an oxygen partial pressure of 160mg Hg. By forcing higher levels of oxygen into the body's cells, this oxygen can act against the Lyme spirochete.